Predictions for the Cloud in 2009

What will 2009 bring in terms of the cloud computing landscape? Appistry offers a set of predictions as to where cloud computing is going and what companies such as Oracle, IBM and Amazon.com are likely to do.

With 2008 being the year that cloud computing dominated the headlines in the
IT arena, some pundits are saying that 2009 will be the year of the cloud for
enterprises.
I'll get back to that in a bit, but first I want to give credit to my former
colleague Peter Coffee, who gave a multifaceted description of what it means to
be in the cloud.

Coffee, who is now director of platform research at Salesforce.com, said,
"I'm currently using a simple reference model for what a 'cloud computing'
initiative should try to provide. I'm borrowing from the famous
Zero-One-Infinity rule, canonically defined in The Jargon
File..."

He continued, "It seems to me that a serious effort at delivering cloud
benefits pursues the following ideals-perhaps never quite reaching them, but
clearly having them as goals within theoretical possibility: Zero-On-premise[s]
infrastructure, acquisition cost, adoption cost and support cost. One-Coherent
software environment-not a 'stack' of multiple products from different
providers. This avoids the chaos of uncoordinated release cycles or deferred
upgrades. Infinity-Scalability in response to changing need, integratability/interoperability
with legacy assets and other services, and customizability/programmability from
data, through logic, up into the user interface without compromising robust
multitenancy."

Sam Charrington and the folks at cloud software provider Appistry offered up
a list of five predictions for the cloud space for 2009, and I have to say I am
in agreement with most of them. Charrington is Appistry's vice president of product
management and marketing.
The company's first prediction is that "2009 will herald the 'Year of
the Cloud' for enterprises." Indeed, "Virtualization has matured; the
economy is sinking while business costs are rising; and private clouds have
already captured enterprise attention for their inherent security and
reliability," said an Appistry release describing its predictions.
"These factors and more have created an ideal environment for enterprise
cloud computing to thrive in 2009."

Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.